Biometric adjustments for touchscreens

• US 8,704,775 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2008
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Cantrell, Christian T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moorad, Waseem
• Application Number:
  US12/268,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20130120278A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,988 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-179
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

In some embodiments, a touchscreen may display a graphical user interface with one or more input options and may detect which input options are selected by a user by detecting a user'"'"'s contact on the touchscreen. The system may determine a new graphical user interface configuration to increase the size and/or spacing of the input options. In some embodiments, one or more of the input options may be removed to increase the space available to increase the size of the other input options. In some embodiments, the system may maintain a history of input option use to determine which input options to remove. In some embodiments, the new graphical user interface configuration may include smaller (and/or additional) input options (e.g., if the contact areas are detected as consistently within the displayed input options).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

displaying a graphical user interface with a first graphical user interface configuration;

detecting a size of a contact area corresponding to a user input on a touchscreen to select at least one input option on the graphical user interface;

determining a second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on the size of the detected contact area of the user input and based on previous corrections made by the user to correct user input mistakes on the first graphical user interface configuration; and

displaying the graphical user interface with the second graphical user interface configuration, the first and second graphical user interface configurations including the at least one input option that is different in at least one characteristic in each of the first and second graphical user interface configurations, and the at least one input option has the same function in each of the first and second graphical user interface configurations.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic is size and wherein the at least one input option for the second graphical user interface configuration is a different size than the at least one input option of the first graphical user interface configuration.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic is spacing and wherein the at least one input option for the second graphical user interface configuration includes a different spacing between the at least one input option and a neighboring at least one input option of the second graphical user interface configuration than a spacing between the at least one input option and the neighboring at least one input option of the first graphical user interface configuration.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first graphical user interface configuration comprises another at least one input option that is not included in the second graphical user interface configuration.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the other at least one input option that is not included in the second graphical user interface configuration includes an input option determined to be used less than an input option that is included in both the first graphical user interface configuration and the second graphical user interface configuration.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second graphical user interface configuration includes only part of the first graphical user interface configuration and is accessible by selecting a menu option.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one characteristic of the second graphical user interface configuration is determined while a user is using a first application, and wherein the at least one characteristic of the second graphical user interface configuration is applied to a graphical user interface configuration applied while a user is using a second application.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising averaging a history of at least two past detected contact areas and wherein determining a second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on the detected contact area comprises determining the second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on an average of the at least two past detected contact areas.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said determining the second graphical user interface configuration is also based on a stored history of input options selected by the user.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a touchscreen configured to display a graphical user interface with a first graphical user interface configuration;

at least one processor to execute program instructions that are configured to;

detect a size of a contact area corresponding to a user input on the touchscreen to select at least one input option on the graphical user interface;

determine a second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on the size of the detected contact area of the user input and based on a stored history of input options selected by the user; and

initiate a display of the graphical user interface with the second graphical user interface configuration on the touchscreen, the first and second graphical user interface configurations including the at least one input option that is different in at least one characteristic in each of the first and second graphical user interface configurations, and the at least one input option has the same function in each of the first and second graphical user interface configurations.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the characteristic is size and wherein the at least one input option for the second graphical user interface configuration is a different size than the at least one input option of the first graphical user interface configuration.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the characteristic is spacing and wherein the at least one input option for the second graphical user interface configuration includes a different spacing between the at least one input option and a neighboring at least one input option of the second graphical user interface configuration than a spacing between the at least one input option and the neighboring at least one input option of the first graphical user interface configuration.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first graphical user interface configuration comprises another at least one input option that is not included in the second graphical user interface configuration.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the other at least one input option that is not included in the second graphical user interface configuration includes an input option determined to be used less than an input option that is included in both the first graphical user interface configuration and the second graphical user interface configuration.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the second graphical user interface configuration includes only part of the first graphical user interface configuration and is accessible by selecting a menu option.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein at least one characteristic of the second graphical user interface configuration is determined while a user is using a first application, and wherein the at least one characteristic of the second graphical user interface configuration is applied to a graphical user interface configuration applied while a user is using a second application.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the program instructions are further executable to average a history of at least two past detected contact areas and wherein determining a second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on the detected contact area comprises determining the second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on an average of the at least two past detected contact areas.

26. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the program instructions are configured to determine the second graphical user interface configuration also based on previous corrections made by the user to correct user input mistakes on the first graphical user interface configuration.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to:

display a graphical user interface with a first graphical user interface configuration;

detect a size of a contact area corresponding to a user input on a touchscreen to select at least one input option on the graphical user interface;

determine a second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on the size of the detected contact area of the user input; and

display the graphical user interface with the second graphical user interface configuration, the first and second graphical user interface configurations including the at least one input option that is different in at least one characteristic in each of the first and second graphical user interface configurations, and the at least one input option has the same function in each of the first and second graphical user interface configurations.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the characteristic is size and wherein the at least one input option for the second graphical user interface configuration is a different size than the at least one input option of the first graphical user interface configuration.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the characteristic is spacing and wherein the at least one input option for the second graphical user interface configuration includes a different spacing between the at least one input option and a neighboring at least one input option of the second graphical user interface configuration than a spacing between the at least one input option and the neighboring at least one input option of the first graphical user interface configuration.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the first graphical user interface configuration comprises another at least one input option that is not included in the second graphical user interface configuration.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the other at least one input option that is not included in the second graphical user interface configuration includes an input option determined to be used less than an input option that is included in both the first graphical user interface configuration and the second graphical user interface configuration.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the second graphical user interface configuration includes only part of the first graphical user interface configuration and is accessible by selecting a menu option.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein at least one characteristic of the second graphical user interface configuration is determined while a user is using a first application, and wherein the at least one characteristic of the second graphical user interface configuration is applied to a graphical user interface configuration applied while a user is using a second application.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the program instructions are further executable to average a history of at least two past detected contact areas and wherein determining a second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on the detected contact area comprises determining the second graphical user interface configuration based at least partially on an average of the at least two past detected contact areas.

27. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein to determine the second graphical user interface configuration is also based on previous corrections made by the user to correct user input mistakes on the first graphical user interface configuration.